


It Happen When I Stumbled into the Forest

by Crejhov



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Assumed rape, Different Worlds, F/M, Hurt, It's not rape, Magic, Memory Loss, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 11:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4958950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crejhov/pseuds/Crejhov
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the convergence, Darcy slips through one of the gravitational anomalies. When she comes back out she has no memory of what happened to her. The only thing that is clear is the feeling deep in her bones that something is wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy awoke in a dark room feeling lethargic and disoriented. The scattered thoughts fluttering about her head managed to register the clenching ache in her lower abdomen and back. It took several minutes of confused observation of her surroundings before she could determine that she was in a hospital and possibly coming off drugs. The ache in her stomach was becoming more pronounced with each passing minute and soon she had rolled on to her side to curl in on herself. The pain didn't abate but it was the only thing she knew to do. 

“Darcy?”

She looked up to see Jane walk into the room with a steaming cup of coffee in her hand and and bags under her eyes. “How do you feel?” She set the cup down on a table by the window and took a seat on the bed next to Darcy.

“Sore?” There was something else. Gnawing at the back of her brain and fizzling in the center of her chest. There was something important that was wrong. “What happened?”

Jane turned away, her face pinching into something uncomfortable. Darcy tried to shift into an upright position, but the muscles in her abdomen clenched hard enough to knock the breath from her. 

“Don't try to get up, you only got out of surgery a couple of hours ago.” Her friend and boss said, helping to ease her into a more comfortable position. 

She grabbed one of Jane's hands to hold. “Surgery? Was I in an accident?” No memory of an injury bad enough to land in a hospital formed. But a near apocalyptic scene of Space Elves running around London did. “Wait, no. Did one of those freaky Jason-Elves shoot me?”

Jane clenched her jaw. “No, the Dark Elves didn't hurt you. You don't remember?” Darcy shook her head. Her next words were slow and calculated. “We think something else hurt you.”

“What?” Jane's reluctance to spit it out only served to fuel Darcy's growing dread. 

She took a deep breath while Darcy held her's. “During the attack, you got separated from Ian –“ “Who?” “The intern. Anyway, we lost contact with you for about twenty minutes. You got caught in one of the spacial anomalies and then, after Thor beat Malikith, me and Erik found you in the university courtyard.”

Tears started to brighten Jane's warm brown eyes and Darcy could only grasp her hand tighter. “You were hysterical, we couldn't calm you down. You were crying and yelling about something being wrong.” Jane sniffed. “You didn't say what was wrong, I don't think you knew.”

Jane rubbed the back of her hand with her thumb and it did wonders in calming Darcy, if only marginally. “Then you collapsed, and you were crying and...” She trailed off, looking like she wanted to swallow the words lodged in her throat. 

Darcy squeezed her hand. “And what?”

“You had a miscarriage.” Darcy heard her words, but couldn't process them. Pregnant? What? “That's what the surgery was for. Well, it was a D&C but, the doctor can explain it better.” She waved her hand in front of her face as though to shoo it away.

“No.” Her brain and body felt numb, like someone had replaced the saline in her IV with Novocaine. 

Jane swiped the sleeve of her over sized shirt at her misty eyes. “No?”

Darcy shook her head and shifted her hips on the bed. “No. I – “ She closed her eyes and bit her lip. “I can't have been pregnant, I just had a period.” Not to mention her bone dry sex life for the last year. 

Jane's lower lip bowed up in a quiver. “Darcy,” And the way she said her name, so devastated, solidified that pool of dread into a block of ice. “The doctor said you were twenty-two weeks.”

Darcy started the head shaking again. There was just no way. It was impossible. 

“I mean I saw you naked yesterday morning and then when we found you, you had this huge baby bump. Well, not huge! But it was like soccer ball sized. And you were screaming and crying and we didn't know what to do. Then you were on the ground and crying and then you were bleeding. When we got you here, they had to sedate you.” Jane said it all in one breath and continued to hold said breath while she waited for Darcy's reaction. 

Darcy for her part couldn't form a coherent response. Her mouth opened and closed several times but nothing came out. She clenched her eyes shut and ignored the cramping in her stomach and what that meant. “I don't understand.” A few hot tears escaped and slid down her face where they were absorbed by the pillow. 

Jane leaned over and gave her an awkward angled hug. “We don't really understand either. Thor went back to Asgard to see if he could find any answers there.” 

The doctor came in fifteen minutes later while Jane and Darcy were still holding each other, both of their faces wet. Doctor Abbott read her through the procedure of a D&C which involved removing the fetus and scraping her uterus placenta and the like. The whole lecture made Darcy sick, so sick that she did end up emptying the contents of her stomach rather violently. Jane rubbed her back and held her hair. Doctor Abbott informed her that nausea was a perfectly normal symptom that would pass. 

It could have been her body healing from the miscarriage, but Darcy didn't think so. There was so much information, first from Jane and then from Abbott. In the time span of twenty minutes, she had become pregnant with some unknown man (species?) as the father on some other world. She didn't even know if it was consensual. Just what the fuck? And then she had miscarried for some unknown reason. Doctor Abbott offered an autopsy and when she didn't answer said that she had a few days to change her mind. 

When the doctor left, Jane turned to her. “I don't think it's a good idea to let the hospital do an autopsy.” She whispered. 

Darcy could only blink stupidly. “Why?”

For her part, Jane looked like she wanted to be exasperated but was biting her tongue out of consideration for her drugged and hurting friend. “Think about it, if the baby isn't all human or some weird unknown radiation was the cause of death, then SHIELD'll get involved. What do you think they'll do to you?”

A new wave of nausea washed over her. Every horror movie that centered around government experimentation played through her head. “Oh God, Jane, how are we going to hide this from them?” This was all so messed up. If SHIELD got involved in this, than there was no guaranteeing her safety. She looked up to Jane, pleading etched in every line of her face. “Don't let them take me.”

“I won't, and neither will Thor or Erik.”

Together all three of them would probably be enough to deter SHIELD. Thor was an actual alien and they hadn't tried to dissect him. Or his crazy brother. There was hope for her. It probably wasn't an alien that got her pregnant anyway. Maybe she just forgot about having sex and then passing through the space portal (anomaly, whatever) sped it up. Or not. If she forgot about having sex than something wasn't right.

Darcy took three deep breaths before she was calm enough to continue a rational conversation. It was doubtful, SHIELD would employ anal probes in their experiments. “What do we do?”

Jane shrugged her shoulders. “Erik said he knows a biologist at Culver that would help out and keep things under wraps. Doctor Ross? She's actually a cellular biologist, but she could help.” 

Darcy didn't know if it was her recovery or the conversation that made her feel so ill. “What – what would she do with... it?” She didn't even know if it was human, much less its sex. 

“Nothing weird, I promise. Erik said she's had run-in's with government types before and would be delicate. Doctor Ross would just determine if it is completely human and maybe find out what caused its rapid gestation and cause of death.”

Jane was trying hard to be delicate, unfortunately, Darcy's mind and emotional state were more fragile. She didn't know what to feel. It was like being pulled in six different directions. The only thing she knew for sure was that she felt overwhelmed. Darcy bit her lip and willed the fresh wave of tears to evaporate before they fell. No such luck. 

“Oh, Darcy. I promise, everything'll be alright.”

She wiped the back of her hand over her eyes. “How do you know?”

Jane took both of her hands in hers, getting her's wet in the process. “I don't, but I do know that I'll help you. That's what friends are for.”

Darcy didn't bother trying to hold back the tears this time. Those were the same words she had said to Jane after aliens invaded New York and Thor had left for Asgard without so much as a phone call. SHIELD had had a lot to answer for that day. It was probably the reason they didn't answer when Darcy tried to warn them of the convergence. 

Still feeling fragile and emotionally raw, Darcy was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health and instructions to take it easy. Her doctor suggested a couple of therapy groups for women who had lost their unborn babies. Darcy thought a group for rape victims might be more appropriate. Was there one for those that had possibly impregnated by aliens during a convergence of worlds? Thor could probably put her in the right direction. 

Before she had finished her discharge with the doctor, Erik left to pull the car around to the front of the hospital. He had been hovering nervously most of the morning. Between him and Jane, Darcy didn't think she'd be able to get a moment to herself anytime soon. One she desperately needed. 

Jane took Darcy's hand in her's and both women left the hospital. It was when they stepped out of the sliding doors and into the parking lot that the uneasy peace she had wrestled with was shattered. There, arguing with Erik next to Jane's mom's station wagon, was Agent Coulson back from the dead and another male agent she didn't recognize. Darcy squeezed Jane's hand tightly as her friend dragged her forward when her feet wanted to root to the spot. 

“What's going on here?” Darcy couldn't see Jane's face but she could picture it. Her distaste for SHIELD and all things SHIELD related had only grown with time and every SHIELD interference. “What are you doing here?”

Coulson and his buddy turned to the 5'3” irate scientist in unison. Coulson was as cool as ever and distantly, Darcy wondered if he might still be dead. The other man had the appropriate amount of cation warring with responsibility on his face.

“Doctor Foster,” Coulson greeted before his eyes slid to Darcy. Not even Jane's freakishly strong muscles could move her this time. “Ms. Lewis.”

Jane continued, leaving Darcy about seven feet from the rest of the group. She got right up in Coulson's face despite the other man's best efforts to keep her at a respectable distance. He was definitely new; Jane was far too excitable to abide by such things as personal space. 

“Now you're here, after everything's been said and done? Don't think you'll be having any access to my research this time around, global security my ass! We took care of that with no help from you!” 

Coulson waited patiently while Jane laid in to him with all the rage of a rampaging bull. “I apologize –“

Darcy stopped listening to Coulson's half-assed apology when she caught sight of the white styrofoam container the other agent was holding. She could physically feel the blood drain from her face when she realized what it contained. 

Lifting one shaking hand, she pointed to the white box with a horror. “Oh God, is that –“ The rest of her sentence trailed off when her world tipped and faded to black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be some triggers in the first few paragraphs that refer to thoughts of suicide and more about the miscarriage.

Darcy crossed her eyes and fell forward until her forehead hit the top of the steering wheel with a thump. Jane didn't even pause in her speech about the proper way to pack her delicate equipment, her voice just continued to drift from the speaker on her phone and through the car. Three and a half years they'd been working together and for three and a half years Darcy had received this exact lecture each and every time the equipment need to be moved. 

Her lips moved along with Jane's words as she wondered if driving off a bridge might be enough to kill her. Probably she should unload Jane's stuff first. It'd be rude to get it all wet. If the bridge was tall enough, just jumping should be enough to accomplish her goal and then there'd be no reason to trap herself in the car. But then, they'd find her body and it would be all bloated and they'd call Jane in to identify her. Or Erik. She couldn't do that to them. It wouldn't be fair.

“Darcy?”

She hummed an acknowledgment and kept her head against the steering wheel.

“Are you okay? I can fly back and we can drive out to Vermont together.” 

The way Jane's voice would soften like that ate at Darcy and had for months now. She knew that her friend was only trying to be sensitive even if it wasn't her strongest attribute. Or like, at all. But she was trying and it made Darcy miserable that she had to put forth the effort to try. 

“Yeah, I'm good. I'll pick you up at the airport Thursday.” She had gotten very good at keeping her voice even. “I think a couple day's to myself is just what the doctor ordered.”

There was a pause over the line before Jane answered. “If you're sure.”

Jane had hovered like a moth over a flame since she had woken up in that hospital room. She had done the same to Erik after the Battle of New York. So had Darcy. But just like Erik, she needed some space to get her head back in order. Dr. Garner had been a huge help, even if SHIELD had forced her to be assessed by him. 

He was actually a professor on the Culver campus and had worked for SHIELD writing up psych profiles for them. He had promised that just like with all his other patients, what she said while in session with him was private. She still didn't trust that it was, but Thor had made it clear that any attempt to hold her and/or dissect her was off the table unless they wanted a war. Not that it mattered now. Captain America pretty much took down SHIELD in a blaze of glory on a breezy April afternoon. 

She still saw Dr. Garner every other week. Whether he was a SHIELD informant or not, he still gave excellent counseling. Without him, Erik and Jane, she probably would have done something stupid by now. Of course, if she had never met Jane she would have never – That was a poisonous thought and she wouldn't allow it to take root. This wasn't Jane's fault and it wasn't Thor's or Erik's or her's. Someone was responsible for all the pain she was suffering but it wasn't her friends. She did blame Ian, the rat, for selling her out to SHIELD though. 

“Don't worry too much, Jane, that's my job.” The joke fell flat as they mostly did these days. “I'll call you tonight when I make it in.”

There was another pause from Jane before she wished her safe travels and instructed her to call for anything she needed. Darcy's promise to drive safe was genuine her promise to call was not. 

Talking about the things going on in her head was like pulling teeth. What exactly happened to her when she slipped through one portal and out of another was unclear. Heimdall hadn't been at his post during the convergence, there was the small matter of his arrest for treason when he aided in Thor, Jane and Loki's escape from Asgard. Thor, for all his efforts hadn't been much help either. He had managed to confirm that she had been effected by an energy. Thor had said that if his mother or brother were still alive that they could have offered more information. 

SHIELD had run a small battery of tests under the eagle eye of Jane with Thor as the muscle and Erik making everyone awkward without his pants until she was cleared to leave. The energy Thor had detected had similar qualities to what Loki had used to control Erik with. The SHIELD techs had wanted to get more readings but it had dissipated by the end of the exam. All she knew for certain was that she felt she had been wronged.

Dr. Garner said that it could have been a suppressed memory that had burrowed into her subconscious. Since her memory of the space between the portals was lost (Garner perfered the term locked) he liked to focus on her go to response emotions. For instance, the miscarriage. The first thing she felt about the loss of the baby was grief. But it felt muted and it confused her. 

After fainting in the hospital parking lot, she had cracked her head on the pavement and earned herself a concussion. At some point Thor had returned and nearly gone to war with SHIELD when Jane told him that they had taken the fetus and did an autopsy on it. At least they had proven without a doubt that the baby was all human and that it had shared half her DNA. It had also been a girl. 

Darcy had cried for days and had decided to bury her in a cemetery in Virginia. She had only visited the grave once at her last session with Dr. Garner. There had been a lot of crying and once the session was over, Darcy had gone home to curl up with Jane on the sofa to cry some more. She had been crying a lot since that day. It made her feel like a burden to those around her. She was the one dragging them down with her trauma.

“Your destination is one mile straight ahead.” The smooth female voice of the GPS said, drawing Darcy from her thoughts. 

She scrunched her nose and squinted at the miniature screen attached to her dash. The cream and neutral colors doing nothing to help her determine the street view of the cabin rental. She had of course printed off pictures, but those had ended up in the floorboard at some point in Pennsylvania. 

“You have arrived at your destination.”

Darcy rolled the car to a stop in the middle of the street. There was no cabin anywhere in sight. Not even a turn off for the cabin. The only thing that wasn't road or forest was a sign welcoming her to Storybrooke. Clearly she was not at her destination since the cabin was supposed to be in East Dover. She reached over and lightly tapped the plastic casing of the GPS. It blinked a couple of times before shutting off. 

“What the hell?” She murmured and tapped at it with increasing aggression. It didn't turn back on.

With a huff, Darcy moved her foot to the accelerator and drove forward. It wasn't smart to just sit out on the road like she was. Even if there weren't any other cars out on the road, one could come along at any minute and plow right into her. Also, there could crazy people out in the woods just waiting to harvest her organs for supper. 

It took fifteen minutes to reach town and even then it wasn't anything to write home about. This was just like Puente Antiguo but with more trees and less tumbleweeds. She pulled to a stop outside the first gas station she saw. There was a pretty good chance it was the only gas station in town. In most small towns like this, everything closed up for the day by ten, fortunately, it was only 8:30. 

Darcy grabbed her trusty road atlas that had guided her and Jane all over America and Canada, and made a trail for the gas station. Other than the clerk behind the counter, there was only one person in the store and his back was turned to her. 

The clerk was an older guy who was watching antiques roadshow on a small TV in the corner. He turned to her when she dropped her handy dandy atlas on the counter. “Hi, I was hoping you could help me.” She smiled wide at him. “I am so lost.”

He blinked at her and then looked down to the map. “Sure thing, where are you headed?”

She flipped to the page devoted to Vermont. “East Dover. My GPS died on me, you'd think Stark Tech would be a little more reliable, right?”

“East Dover, huh?” He said with a frown. “Well, there's your problem. This is Maine.”

Darcy continued to stare dumbly at the map for a long, uncomfortable minute before looking up to the clerk. “What?”

Mark, his name tag read, fixed her with a pitying look. “You're in Maine.” He repeated and looked down to her map. “It looks like you're nearly four hundred miles off your mark.” The next look he gave her clearly telegraphed his questioning of her intelligence.

“You're joking, right?” Maine was nearly six hours out of the way. There was just no possible way she had accidentally missed a turnoff and found herself so far of route. 

“I'm sorry ma'am.” He reached down and pulled out what looked to be a map of town and a marker. “There's an inn down the road if you want to get some rest before heading back out on the road.”

He drew a very deliberate straight line from the gas station to the inn. If this had been any other time, Darcy would have taken offense to her mental capacities. If this was some sort of joke, than it was elaborate because the map was labeled as Storybrooke, Maine. 

Jane would never let her out of her sight again after this. 

As if sensing that something was amiss, Darcy's phone lit up with a call from Jane. Feeling dazed, she thanked the clerk and gathered her atlas and the town map before heading back out to her car. 

“Hey, Jane.” She answered, unable to keep the lingering shock out of her voice. “So, funny story...”

Jane didn't think it was a funny story, neither did Darcy really. But she was tired, not only from the trip but also from life, so this was one of those laugh or cry moments. Jane agreed with Mark the clerk and told her to get some rest before heading for Vermont. Darcy promised to do just that and promised twice more to call her in the morning before she left. 

There was no one behind the desk when she came through the door. She rang the service bell on the dusty front desk and a tall woman in Mickey Mouse shorts and a too small white tee came around the corner. Walt Disney was rolling around in his grave. 

“Can I help you?” She asked with a friendly smile and wiped her hands on the small apron tied around her waist. 

“I'd like to get a room for the night?” Why else would she be standing here with a suitcase. 

The other brunette pointed one red polished finger at her and smiled brighter. “Right!” 

Ruby, as she had introduced herself, set her up with a room with a view of the forest. The room itself was nice, with duvets, wallpaper and doilies it gave off a very distinctive granny's house feel. Probably to go along with Granny's Diner that was attached to the inn. Darcy flopped down on the bed and struggled for sleep until after midnight.


End file.
